how to

Okay, so I don’t know about you,
but finding gifts that children can make can sometimes be troublesome.

Especially, when you wait until a week before Christmas to get started.

Ahem.

Anyway, if you have a child who is interested in making gifts for family members,
next week is a great time to put the Christmas break to good use.

Especially when they can create something like this:

My nine year old made these.
Trust me, they are simple!
And Cheap!

This would be a great project for young tweeny boppers too!

So here’s the deal:

Materials:Wood
Stain
Paint
Sandpaper

And here’s how to do all that on the cheap:

1. Visit Home Depot and head to the back of the lumber aisle. They should have a discount bin, where you can snag a board like this for practically free. Actually 51 cents, but if your kids flash a pearly grin, and ask adorable questions like, “What kind of wood is this?,” and “Do I need to sand with the grain?” then you might just score them for free.

NOTE: I have only seen the discount bin empty one time. You may not score the same size board as we did but there is usually always something to work with. Try to take the STRAIGHTEST board with no SPLITS.

2. Cut your board. HD will do this for FREE! or if you have a saw at home, that works too. We cut our boards at about 14 inches. We got FIVE signs out of one board! SCORE!

3. Paint your background color on your board. Use a lighter color paint, as we will darken it up a bit a little later. (Sissy’s signs were painted white and light blue to begin with.) TIP: While you’re at Home Depot, check their paint department for the “Mess Ups” rack. I often find a small tub of paint for 50 cents!

4. Choose your word. Pick a font that is crisp and easy to paint. Print it at a size that will fit your board.

5. Follow this chalk tutorial for transfering your word to your board. Or use graphite paper, we’re cheap and there are ALWAYS little chunks of sidewalk chalk around our house.

6. Paint your word. This is the longest part, go slow, don’t fret over mistakes, we can sand them off…and we want it to look shabby anyway right? We have a basic paint brush set from Wally World that included a slanted tip paint brush….this helps quite a bit.

7. Shabby your board up a bit. Use sandpaper to rough up your word. Hammer in some dents. Rough up the edges…ect.

Don’t be afraid to take out some big gouges!
Where ever there is bare wood showing, the stain will soak in.

8. Use a wood stain over the paint. This is the most expensive part of the project. Wood stain is about $8 at Home Depot, but it will last you a lifetime! You literally use a dab of this stain for each board. I love Minwax Jacobean for most projects.

To stain your board: Wear gloves, dab an old rag into the can, and then wipe it over the whole project, let it set for a few moments, then wipe it off. Throw away your rags. (I read somewhere that staining rags can self ignite…and that is not good right? So toss them!)

Mom or Dad can do this part too, if you’re nervous about the kiddos handling such a noxious product.

9. Let it dry. We move ours indoors because it sets quicker. Afterwords you can spray a poly coat on if you like, this is just an extra step to protect the sign if say you needed to clean it for some reason. Not necessary, but if you have the spray anyway, give it a quick shot.

10. If you want to be fancy, hammer a hook or a picture holder into the back.

All Done!

Total Cost
$.51 wood
$8 stain
_________
$8.50

On Hand:
Sandpaper
Paint

$8.50 makes about 5 signs….so that’s about $1.70 per gift!

Not bad.

Maybe Mom can make a few too?

Now that I think of it,
This would be a great project for the entire family,
you could easily make words like JOY and Peace…

Stay tuned for some more shabby projects,
my camera is full of photos to share!

Not yet a subscriber? Join free today by adding your name and email address below! As a newsletter subscriber you'll receive easy print workbooks, exclusive freebies, sponsor offers and updates when new printables and products are available.

I need to state that before I actually MADE this,
I spent THREE months trying to BUY this instead.

I needed a Mud Room Shelf,
and I had a small list of requirements:

I wanted one that was made out of REAL WOOD

This shelf had to be heavy duty.
Four kids.
Activities with crazy amounts of gear.
A gazillion winter jackets.
Maybe even a special place for my crazy heavy purse?
(seriously what ever happened to REAL WOOD?)

I also wanted LOTS of hooks.At least 6.
2 or 3 just isn’t going to cut it around here.
Ideally I’d have 12,
but I only have room for about 6,
so that is the magic number.

And of course I wanted it to MATCH. I adore shabby, rustic, and muted colors.
Too much color and not enough reflecting light just makes my head hurt.

So after months of searching with no luck,
I grudgingly went to my favorite DIY blog Shanty 2 Chic.
I was only hesitant because I’ve never actually “built” anything before.
(napkin holders in 8th grade shop class don’t count)

Isn’t it beautiful!
And the tutorial was SHORT and SIMPLE and I KNEW what most of the supplies were.

To make an already long story short:
I made two of them!

And it really wasn’t hard at all!(read: I spent ALL day struggling with this project, while my children ran rampant in the yard and by the time we came in for dinner they looked like starving chimney urchins and I made them eat their pizza in the bathtub.)

Super Easy.

So yeah, in all honesty:
My feet hurt.
My knees hurt.
I have a power drill blister.
I’m covered in paint.But I feel great because….

This is a piece of furniture.
And I made it!
And it only cost me about $55/shelf.FOR REAL WOOD PEOPLE.

It’s hard to tell in the pictures,
but these shelves are FIVE feet long and about TEN inches tall.
They are massive.

I love them to pieces. I loved the white shelf so much that I put it by the front door.
I cannot wait to decorate this each season!

Not yet a subscriber? Join free today by adding your name and email address below! As a newsletter subscriber you'll receive easy print workbooks, exclusive freebies, sponsor offers and updates when new printables and products are available.

Footer

I am a Christian mother of four, with over 13-years experience homeschooling in Southern Oregon. The resources and products I create are designed to keep the prep to a minimum while also bringing a little educational fun to your classroom